I can relate. I just saw the Beach Boys. I was sitting next to three white haired ladies. The audience had more than its share of little old men and women. It was the oldest crowd I've ever seen at a "rock 'n roll" concert. But despite the age of the crowd, they were doing their best to boogie and shake their hips to the music.

I can relate. I just saw the Beach Boys. I was sitting next to three white haired ladies. The audience had more than its share of little old men and women. It was the oldest crowd I've ever seen at a "rock 'n roll" concert. But despite the age of the crowd, they were doing their best to boogie and shake their hips to the music.

So funny, DD and Right on!! You nailed it. Too bad it wasn't disco music (I'm sure that same crowd was headed to a disco concert the following weekend ... and good for them, if they were).

I was laughing out loud when I saw this ...("check out all the old people") and the horror of seeing one's parents in the crowd. I like the gray hair and granny sunglasses of everyone in the stands, too. The entire thing cracked me up.

ETA: I was also happy to be able to post a comic strip, which means that the BDC forum functionality has made a decent comeback.

This is also a common attribute of classical concerts as well, and it's not just that everyone in general is "older" it's that the type of people that go are the "practical shoes" and tweed coat types. :) There is quite a bit of controversy and "talk" about the notion that classical concerts do not attract younger people into the audience, and how this will impact classical organizations in the future if they don't, you know, make some changes. And the ticket prices are perhaps one aspect, but you can attend a classical concer at some venues for dirt cheap in comparison to a rock concert (there are cheap seats to be had).

The smaller venues attract a younger crowd, maybe b/c of the ticket pricing, and sometimes, smaller chamber orchestras have rising, up and coming musicians that attract a younger crowd. I've read that even the NY Met is having financial problems because opera is having the same problem attracting a younger audience. Who is going to fill in the gaps when the older crowds stop attending?

I also find it hilarious to think about the hip hop artists / rappers of today, performing well into their sixties, and wondering if the fans of today will be there scooping up the tickets as part of their "nostalgia" trip. Very hard to imagine they will be as loyal, but time will tell.

Styx along with Boston were the first 2 bands I liked. Styx was from Chicago where I lived in the late 70's and they got plenty of airtime back then, especially on WLS (World's Largest Station at that time). "Pieces Of Eight" I listened to a few weeks ago and it still sounds good. It is is their only album I would recommend.

I go to a lot of gigs, always have. At 53 I'm always one of, if not the, oldest attendee.

I usually take my daughters to Boston in June and in 2013 a friend got us tickets to see the Stranglers. I didn't have the heart to tell her my view of Jefferson Stranglers i.e. no Hugh Cornwell or Jet Black. The Nervous Eaters in support were outstanding, however.

Ah the 70s. So much music: the good, the bad, and the horrendous. The girl I like in the early 70s was into Bobby Sherman.

Later in the decade I hung out with some deadheads at URI (high noon on the quad anyone?) who exposed me to a bunch of really good music although I probably didn't appreciate a lot of it until much later.

And we still go to concerts, the Arcade Fire show a few weeks back was fantastic. We'll probably continue to see them as long as they keep touring. That goes for The National and Radiohead too.

Ah the 70s. So much music: the good, the bad, and the horrendous. The girl I like in the early 70s was into Bobby Sherman.

Later in the decade I hung out with some deadheads at URI (high noon on the quad anyone?) who exposed me to a bunch of really good music although I probably didn't appreciate a lot of it until much later.

And we still go to concerts, the Arcade Fire show a few weeks back was fantastic. We'll probably continue to see them as long as they keep touring. That goes for The National and Radiohead.

I know 20-year olds who barely know who Arcade Fire are, and would prefer to listen to Bob Dylan. Glad you had a great time at their concert, probably fans of all ages. The National are okay in my book, too, but Radiohead is in a different league, and does not belong in the same sentence, or even the same paragraph. :P

Fashions of the 70's alone cannot be surpassed. We owe a debt of gratitude to the fashion designers of that era, but certainly not as much as the 60's. I have a friend born in 1979, who *loves* saying she was born in the 70's.

In reading about the Tom Petty concert at Fenway recently, there were people with white and/or gray hair and long white beards, with tie dye (their ORIGINAL) tee shirts, alongside kids under 10 who were singing every song, who knew ALL the lyrics. Talk about a band that spans the decades and has no generation gap whatsoever with regard to an active fan base.

It's funny, for a long time I thought Styx were a Canadian band. Maybe only a fellow Canuck would understand why I thought they 'sounded Canadian'.

While I'm not as Canadian as you (I spend mostly only summers in Canada, mostly the Montreal area due to my wife being from there ... hence my Tim Wallach of the Expos avatar), I'm going to guess you had the Canadian heavyweight boxing champion Willie de Witt, once dubbed as "The Great White Hope", stuck in your mind when you heard Styx's "Great White Hope" song from their "Pieces of Eight" album.

As I was in the Edmonton, Alberta area for 6 years in the 1980's, I remember Willie de Witt being a major sports story in Canada back then, especially in Alberta where Willie de Witt was from, that along with Wayne Gretzky & Company of the Edmonton Oilers.

This is also a common attribute of classical concerts as well, and it's not just that everyone in general is "older" it's that the type of people that go are the "practical shoes" and tweed coat types. :) There is quite a bit of controversy and "talk" about the notion that classical concerts do not attract younger people into the audience, and how this will impact classical organizations in the future if they don't, you know, make some changes. And the ticket prices are perhaps one aspect, but you can attend a classical concer at some venues for dirt cheap in comparison to a rock concert (there are cheap seats to be had).

The smaller venues attract a younger crowd, maybe b/c of the ticket pricing, and sometimes, smaller chamber orchestras have rising, up and coming musicians that attract a younger crowd. I've read that even the NY Met is having financial problems because opera is having the same problem attracting a younger audience. Who is going to fill in the gaps when the older crowds stop attending?

I also find it hilarious to think about the hip hop artists / rappers of today, performing well into their sixties, and wondering if the fans of today will be there scooping up the tickets as part of their "nostalgia" trip. Very hard to imagine they will be as loyal, but time will tell.

"Darling, he's still dangerous."

Hi Yoga, your great point - and not just about hip hop to me but about all "popular" music - drives me crazy.

Why is it - for some people - that aged musicians in some genres (blues, jazz, classical, folk) can be cool, but in others (rock, punk) they can't? I understand in the latter there is often a youthful, counter-culteral, passion that can become hypocritical, even laughable, once they become a member of the establishment they used to mock...but two of the most passionate, punk rock, wild gigs I've ever seen was the Monks when they were in their late 60s. The Sonics also still kick @r5e and incredibly (not because they are O-L-D, because they haven't written in decades) have a half dozen great new songs.

Also - I'm looking at you, jazz snobs (no one here!) - have you met jazz fans that wax lyrical about the eternal musical brilliance of Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald but if you prefer Jimmy Reed, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry and Little Richard they ask you to run a bath for them?